Dreams On Hold: Buhner Glad To Be Back

August 24, 1986|By IRA WINDERMAN, Staff Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Considering all that Jay Buhner accomplished last season in the New York Yankees` organization, the last place you`d expect to find him in August 1986 is in the middle of a pennant race in Class A ball.

After batting .296 in `85 and challenging the .400 mark for the first two months of last season, Buhner seemed destined for better things this year. Florida State League All-Stars and ``Stars of Stars`` in FSL All-Star Games rarely find the need to make a down payment on a Fort Lauderdale condo.

Yet, one year after New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner noted, ``He reminds me of Mickey Mantle,`` Buhner is spending the final days of the `86 regular season with the Class A Fort Lauderdale Yankees, a team locked in a battle with West Palm Beach for the FSL`s Southern Division title.

``Last year, if you would have told me this is what I`d be doing now, I would have been upset,`` Buhner, 22, said. ``But now, in a way I`m glad I`m playing anywhere.``

When this year began, Buhner found himself in the company of Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson in the New York Yankees` outfield during the exhibition season. A month later, Buhner was reassigned to the organization`s minor- league facility in Hollywood, where he was working out with players from the Double-A Albany (N.Y.) Yankees. ``I was hoping to work with the Triple-A team, so if I didn`t make it there, I would know I would be playing Double- A,`` Buhner said. ``Instead, I felt like I was fighting to make Double-A.``

The decision on where Buhner would spend his third pro season quickly became moot, though. Five days after reporting to the Hollywood complex, doctors feared Buhner`s season was over.

``It was a hit and run,`` Buhner recalled of the minor-league scrimmage. ``I was sliding into second base and the batter missed the ball. The throw was a little wide of second, toward first base, and the fielder was trying to get to the ball while I was hook sliding. I had my arm up to protect myself and my arm hit (the fielder`s) right shin. He more or less kicked me in the arm.

``He was either going to kick me in the face or kick me in the arm. I had to do something soon.``

Buhner`s good looks survived the incident intact. His right arm, though, snapped on impact above the wrist. His still remembers the day it happened. ``It was April Fools` Day.``

For the next six weeks, Buhner wore a plaster cast that extended from his elbow to his wrist. For another four weeks he wore a short fiberglass cast. Two additional weeks were spent in a removable splint that allowed him to swim and squeeze a tennis ball -- but do little else.

When Buhner returned to Fort Lauderdale July 14 for a visit with the team doctor, he was told to rest for another two weeks.

A week later he was hitting for the first time since facing pitchers such as Mike Boddicker and Scott McGregor in spring training. By July 28 he was ready to play.

``The doctors told me I`d be out for the season when I broke it,`` said Buhner, acquired by the Yankees along with Dale Berra and Alfonso Pulido in a 1985 trade that sent Tim Foli and Steve Kemp to the Pittsburgh Pirates. ``But I couldn`t see sitting out a full season. Man, I`ve never been away from it for that long.``

With Buhner still rusty from the layoff, the Yankees had little option but to put him back on the Fort Lauderdale roster.

``It`s funny, but even after getting invited to the big-league spring training and the being reassigned, nobody ever said where I would have been playing this year,`` Buhner said.

Probably because they didn`t want to disappoint the Houston resident after the mishap.

``In all likelihood, he would have been in Double-A,`` Peter Jameson, the Yankees` assistant director of player development, said Friday. ``But we had no reason to hurry him back up there after he had missed 70 percent of the season.``

Instead, Buhner has picked up where he left off in `85. In the 27 games since his return, Buhner has hit .272 in 114 at-bats, with five home runs, seven doubles, one triple and 24 RBI. He still wears a soft bandage that covers his injured arm at the wrist, but said the only residue from the injury has been a decrease in his throwing power from center field.

At the plate, he says he`s 100 percent.

Steinbrenner, the man who made the ``Mickey Mantle`` comparison last year, has already been in contact with Buhner about extending his short season by playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

``I`m really glad about the opportunity, and about having the chance to meet Mr. Steinbrenner,`` Buhner said. ``But I don`t know about the Dominican. That`s awfully far away. And they don`t speak much English there, do they? I think I`d rather go to Puerto Rico.``

Either way, the winter ball invitation shows the Yankees still are taking notice.

And after two seasons with Fort Lauderdale, Jay Buhner would gladly give up the title of FSL star in `87.